Installation of Open vSwitch

Open vSwitch also can be installed very easily through Ubuntu Repository Server using aptitude tools. There are some mandatory packages need to be install but there are some additional fitur which can be installed to utilize the Open vSwitch. The mandatory package such as Open vSwitch datapath can be installed using this following command.

In order to enhance the functionality of the Open vSwitch some additional packages can be installed such as “openvswitch-brcompat” for linux bridge compatibility configuration and “openvswitch-controller” for adding controller function in the same hosts.

After the installation finish, the controller will be automatically run using default TCP port number and certificate.

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Open vSwitch (Bridge) Configuration

The first step to configure the switch is preparing the datapath or bridge for virtual interfaces from the virtual machines. These following commands will create datapath or bridge called as “br1” and virtual interface called as “vnet0”.

Virtual Machine Configuration

There is no special configuration for the virtualbox virtual machine, except selecting the proper interface for “Bridged Adapter” for Virtual Machine “Network Adapter”. For selecting the interface, use the virtual machine “Settings” and choose the “Network” in the left pane. Then give check mark on the “Enable Network Adapter”, select “Attached to : Bridged Adapter” and then select the name which already defined in the previous section “vnet0”.

Network Adapter Configuration on the VirtualBox

Click “OK” and the run the virtual machine. In order to test the connection give the IP address on the network interface of the virtual machine with the IP address from the same segment (172.16.1.0/24).

Open vSwitch is a production quality, multilayer virtual switch licensed under the open source Apache 2.0 license. It is designed to enable massive network automation through programmatic extension, while still supporting standard management interfaces and protocols.

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Components Used

1. Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) with kernel 3.2.0-26

2. Open vSwitch Packages 1.4.0-1 version from Ubuntu Repositories

3. Open vSwitch Datapath Module Source (DKMS) 1.4.0-1 version

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Open vSwitch Packages Installation

These following commands are used to install base packages of Open vSwitch from Ubuntu Repositories.

Before configuration can be done, there are some status need to be verified. First, Open vSwitch kernel module already load in the operating system or not. Second is process that running related with Open vSwitch.

This article will explain how to provide virtual desktop using remote display technology on Oracle VirtualBox. The server will gives every user their own desktop by assigning dedicated virtual machine for them. But for reducing the load on the server, the VirtualBox should be able to run every virtual machine without loading the GUI (Headless Mode).

There are two types components to be installed which are VirtualBox Base Packages and VirtualBox Extension Packs (VRDP, virtual USB, Intel PXE Boot, and PCI Passthrough). Base packages installation can be done using aptitude tools from the Ubuntu repository.

$ sudo apt-get update$ sudo apt-get install dkms virtualboxx

Sometimes we need to install manually DKMS module using this command.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setupx

If the installation still failed, please try to update kernel utilities (kernel header and kbuild) before run the command above.

$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers linux-kbuildx

The next step is VirtualBox extension pack installation which already downloaded from Oracle websites. Install by executed the file or by double click the file until the VirtualBox installation window appear, and klik “Install”.

VirtualBox Extension Pack Installation Window

But, installation also can be done by selecting this following menu File > Preference > Extensions on the Main window of VirtualBox.

Virtual Box Extension Pack Installation from Main Menu

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Configuring Virtual Desktop for Remote Display Support

In order to support remote display, some configuration need to be changed on the specific virtual desktop (virtual machine). Select one of the virtual machine and then select “Settings” menu. There is menu “Displays” on the right window and then click “Remote Display”. Remote display “Enable Server” is disabled by default, and to active just give check mark on the box.

Enabling VRDP Server on the Virtual Desktop (Virtual Machine)

This task also can be done using this below CLI (Command Line Interface)

$ sudo VBoxManage modifyvm Ubuntu-10.04 –vrde on

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Running Virtual Desktop on Headless Mode

Sometimes the virtual desktop GUI no required to be ran in the server, because it is only required enable VRDP and the GUI will be accessed through the client terminal. VirtualBox can be run without GUI by running specific virtual desktop at VirtualBox Server on the Headless Mode.

Google Chrome OS is web based open source operating systems which developed from web browser called “Chrome”. This OS can be used as one of desktop virtualization solution to access all cloud services from Google or private services from some corporate.

After the raw file copied to the USB disk, by default the disk will be flagged as bootable. USB disk can be used for booting, by changing the boot order on the laptop depends on the type and brand. The main important thing that the OS image will detect the wireless card driver in order to build connection through wireless network before the OS can continue to boot. If there is any problem, it seems that the laptop wireless card is not supported by the OS image and need the other source of OS file images.

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Chrome OS Installation

Instead of boot from the USB, Chromium OS also possible to be installed on the laptop’s hardisk. The installation can be done by two different option of installation. Option number one is to install Chromium OS on the entire hardrive and option number two is install side-by-side with another operating systems (Dual-Boot).

Option One, the installation will be very simple by booting the Chromium OS through the USB and then open the CLI (command line terminal) with Ctrl+Alt+T key. On the CLI, type install to start the Chromium OS installation. If the installation required a password, based on the file image documentation the password is “dell1234”.

Note: It will erase all the files inside the hardisk before the installation.

Chromium OS CLI Display

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Option Two, the installation will be more difficult because there are some steps need to be done before the installation. This following steps are required for installing the Chromium OS image into hardisk.

Hardisk partition, it can be done using many type of software such as GParted for Linux and Partition Magic for Windows. Two new partition need to be created for C-ROOT with linux ext2 filesystem and C-STATE with linux ext3 filesystem. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Editing Boot Loader, linux operating system already boot loader utility called as “grub”. Insert the entry for Chromium OS loader in the grub configuration file (boot/grub/grub.cfg) and then don’t forget to save it. You must have superuser password to do it. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Background

Some facts that drive network virtualization are outlined as follow. First, Infrastructure Usage Utilization is not cost effective, usage of one physical infrastructure for one specific network or specific services is not cost effective, because it will increase cost investment (CapEx) for the network or service provider. On the contrary, a usage of shared physical infrastructure will increase the efficiency of the usage without sacrifice quality of services or performance caused by interference between services. Second, Cloud Solutions (Cloud Computing, etc) do not concern on the infrastructure, service or application developers always assume that network resources always available for their application and services, and do not consider any QoS approach from the services for transmitting through the network. And third, Requirement of connection respect all service requirements, connectivity between components within virtualized service platform must be respecting all service requirements, e.g. as expressed by interactive real-time services, on transport layer.

Definition

There are some definitions for network virtualization and most of them have the same approach. Oberle and his team define it as ”A promising approach to cover individual and dynamic resource provision while keeping strong individual QoS requirements and optimizing the overall resource usage”. Nakao and his team regards network virtualization as “A technique for isolating computational and network resources through virtualization to allocate them to a logical (virtual) network for accommodating multiple independent and programmable virtual networks”. Lastly, Miyamura and his team delineate it as “A mechanism for running multiple networks, which are customized to a specific purpose, over the shared infrastructure”.

Moreover, there are several differences when comparing traditional concept of legacy VPNs and network virtualization. While VPNs only offer apparent and dedicated connectivity in the current network architecture, network virtualization aims to achieve the additional features: (1) Programmability: a virtual network may be equipped with programmable control plane, (2) Topology awareness: a virtual network may be topology aware rather than offering only connectivity, (3) Quick reconfigurability: a virtual network may be quickly provisioned and reconfigured, (4) Resource isolation: a virtual network may be allocated a set of computational and network resources, and (5) Network abstraction: a virtual network may accommodate a new architecture different from the current Internet architecture.

Key Features

According to the definition of network virtualization, there are two benefit based on the purposes by implementing multiple network architectures and services in isolated logical networks on top of a single shared physical infrastructure. First, in the long run, we can define a meta-architecture to accommodate multiple architectures concurrently. Secondly, in the short term, we can construct testbeds to experiment with multiple disruptive network architectures and services concurrently without interference among those experiments.

From another point of view, there are several important features in the respect to network virtualization which are segmentation, isolation, and encapsulation. Segmentation allows several different services to share a physical link with given specific QoS properties. Encapsulation enables services developers to design service specific on the overlay networks at a high level of abstraction, and then disburden them from dealing with highly complex physical network infrastructures. Finally, means for isolation are imperatively needed to suppress any unwanted cross-talk between the services which run on shared physical links.